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Home ed

Find advice from other parents on our Homeschool forum. You may also find our round up of the best online learning resources useful.

Home Education

34 replies

christmasboysx2 · 29/06/2020 17:20

I'm considering lots of options at the moment, and I'm seriously thinking about home educating my primary school age children longer-term. Does anyone know where I start with this? I'm excited but nervous. I want to do it properly! Thanks for any information.

OP posts:
ShoshanaBlue101 · 03/08/2020 15:17

Home education changes with age....and once IGCSEs enter your life, it's changed forever! We are what is considered to be 'semi structured'. But at a young age, we used to work in the mornings and go out in the afternoons. There was less need for online classes - though we did use Hill Tuition and LearnTec and that is (now) how my child works best.

If I had my time over again, I'd probably have introduced more online stuff with somewhere like Netschool at a younger age as you can choose individual subjects.

Mashingthecompost · 14/08/2020 15:49

@Bakedpotatoandgin thank you for hopping on. I always think it makes more sense to listen to experiences of those homeschooled than those homeschooling (or otherwise!). I appreciate the input. I laughed earlier looking at a parents-of-oxbridgers about to embark thread, where the oxford lot were described as weirder than the weird cambridge lot 😆 I decided not to apply to Oxford but I loved it when I visited with college. I hope you have a wonderful time there! (I'm mid 30s now by the way, those days are atl good 15 years behind me!)

DontBeShelfish · 14/08/2020 15:52

As a former FE lecturer I'd say that the most able students I taught were home schooled. Their learning was just so much more diverse, and they were able to critically analyse and debate subjects with far more ease than the students who'd come through the traditional education system. And I say that as a product of that system! Just my experience, however; others might differ of course.

Mashingthecompost · 14/08/2020 15:56

OP, how are you feeling a few weeks on? I'm suddenly aware September is approaching and the deadline for us deregistering. I feel like I'm waiting for a ton of bricks to land on me, despite how much better all our lives have been since DS stopped going to school in March. Threads like this are tremendously helpful. There are a lot around schools and Covid, but they spin endlessly around the 'is it safe or not' argument, which isn't what we're doing it for. I struggle with not knowing all the answers to everything (pandemic has had me feeling like my brain is alight) and I suspect school will attempt to dissuade me from deregistering, which I just don't have the energy for, so they'll get little in return. Anyway. Many thanks to all adding to the convo.

ResIpsaLoquiturInterAlia · 15/08/2020 00:11

Just wondering do any mums here think it is ideal to home school with tutoring in addition to in person schooling? Or is this too much and a confusing blended approach? Seems unfortunately normal in several highly competitive and super high stress societies such as the well documented ones throughout first world Far East Asia. Children in South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong normally put their children through excessive tutoring and treating then as robots sometimes. Does unnaturally produce amazing academic results but this is of less significance when the whole class average is so elevated and so reducing the comparative advantage. Just some thoughts.

Saracen · 15/08/2020 09:44

Hi ResIpsaLoquiturInterAlia, it's done in this country too, for example by parents who are preparing their children for entry to selective schools or those whose children need specialist help e.g. with dyslexia which they aren't getting at school. I think it is sometimes called "afterschooling".

It is an option sometimes considered by parents who need the free childcare provided by state school, or whose kids enjoy school, but who are unhappy with the standard of education provided by school.

You seem to think it is very hard on children, and my personal view is the same. It may be necessary in some cases, but it isn't ideal as it is exhausting for kids and leaves them with less time to play and relax.

The very nature of group instruction means that school - even a good school - is very inefficient from the point of view of the individual learner. A large proportion of a schoolchild's time is spent doing things which are too easy, too difficult, or simply not engaging. There's also stress associated with being in a busy crowded environment all day. For some kids this stress is intolerable, while for many it is low-level and not harmful. But it does mean most kids are rather tired and not able to focus well on academics after school.

If I were a tiger parent I would remove school from the picture, as I would feel it impeded my child's ability to concentrate and achieve to a high level. I would do loads of tutoring instead, which is more efficient. A tiger parent could then use the extra time to cram in even more academics, or encourage their child to do music/sport/etc to a high level as they would have time to work on that for many hours a day. I don't know why competitive parents don't do this more. Or maybe they do, but I don't run across them because they don't waste their child's time hanging out at home ed groups? I did know one such parent once. Her approach achieved the results she wanted.

ResIpsaLoquiturInterAlia · 15/08/2020 13:59

@Saracen

Thank you for your helpful reply.

As you would imagine with non optional Covid home schooling I began to see the pros and cons of traditional in school peer learning compared to focussed and properly done home schooling. I agree about the duplication inefficiencies of mass learning especially with many children of mixed educational abilities in the classroom with a single teacher if no additional teacher assistant. However being born and growing up in a large family myself with several siblings and now a small family of three with just one child myself and spouse I can see how children would benefit also from the social interactivity life social skills, peer learning, friendship bonds and tribulations, teamwork, competitive spirit etc.

I am seeing more positives in home schooling but it takes dedication to do properly and efficiently to ensure your child is tutored in a bespoke tailored manner which can potentially be infinitely more advantageous than being a another little fish in the sea as compared to the only shark in the tank at home.

Owing to personal time and energy if not ability as flexi working from home simultaneously with home schooling even one young primary school child, especially in a multilingual immersive family, is a challenging undertaking! I have a respectable higher education academic grounding as prior to be yet another professional mum in the City I had to pass various post graduate professional qualifications in addition to previous advance degrees from Oxbridge and other world leading universities - so I know I am not particularly lacking in brain power (usually!) However conversely young children basics such as English phonetics which I never learnt as a native speaker is not particularly elementary to swot up on and teach. I recall (if memory serves me correctly) back in the day English language was not taught as it is these days using this seemingly strange sounds building blocks system. Mathematics is fine but again much of the unused basics is forgotten. The advent of mobile technology does allow the brain to relax as a disadvantage of having much information and answers available at the touch of a few buttons online with a mobile and AI "smart" speaker etc.

I can see how some principles of Finnish and Scandinavian style hands on forest schooling is popular as I understand home schooling is not always staying at home but indeed on site activities and explorational trips like museums visits, farms and forest schooling to bring the subject matter to life which is rare in many lesser paid for state schools with resourcing limitations.

I will go back to the drawing board and have a good think as to progress of child in school and if time and energy allows may consider switching more to home schooling. My child is at a classic so called better local hard to enter state primary school which is a accepted state to eight affair and feeder to several highly respected fee paying senior private sector schools. So I will see if I can possibly consider doing more home tutoring and especially continue when Covid safe for all the usual extracurricular enrichment activities which many of the children do some outside of school such as equestrian, ballet grading and music properly. I do not want to be a classic tiger mum as luckily this is not the norm outside of East Asia and certain select Jewish communities etc yet!

Thank you again for the many good points you provided!

Frazzledmum45 · 21/08/2020 19:44

I’d definitely recommend using the FB home Ed groups for advice and there are some great online tutors out there that I could

We were nervous at first about our DD having Home Ed but I can now say it is the best decision we ever made. Definitely look on the FB groups for tips and advice and look for online tutors, some do really good sessions that don’t cost too much.

SueLawwrites · 08/05/2021 13:23

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